802.11ac wireless access points continues to ramp up. Research conducted by
IHS Markit discovered that more than
half a million Wave 2 access points
shipped in the third quarter of calendar
year 2016. The firm reported that in total, 6 million access points of all capabilities shipped in the quarter. “Wave

2 accounted for 10 percent of all units
in Q3, nearly double Q2’s rate,” IHS
Markit said. When measuring by revenue rather than unit shipments, Wave

2 penetrates even more; the technology
accounted for approximately 20 percent of wireless LAN revenues in Q3.

While there may be as much hype as
there is substance to 802.11ac Wave 2 today, the technology nonetheless promises multi-gigabit transmission speed
once the access points now available are
paired up with compatible user devices.

With multi-gig a reality for us-ers of 802.11ac technologies, whetherthat reality is now or sometime in thefuture, the horizontal cabling thatprovides the backhaul for wirelesstransmission must be able to sup-port, at a minimum, the same speed.

About a year after the publication of
TSB-162-A came the formation of the

This set of graphs, produced by IHS Markit, displays a year-over-year
comparison of wireless LAN technologies’ revenue share. Over the course of 12
months, 802.11ac Wave 2 devices grew from low-single digits to approximately
20 percent of revenue. In doing so, Wave 2 took share from 802.11ac Wave 1
and 802.11n products.